How do you pick the topics for a podcast?
Essentially, there are two ways that the topics get generated for a podcast. If you're not tied to an event-driven subject like pop music, or a sport or something, if it's just coming out of your imagination, then you can just go where you want to go. That's clear. If you're tied to something specific, it's often the case that the topics will be driven and chosen for you by events. You've got recent events to review. More importantly, you need to look at things that are still very much happening. Things are either churning up at the moment, or will be likely to happen in the near future. That's because podcasts are not live. You can do them live, but they rarely are live, because people have to be able to get them at any time. Therefore, you've got a real issue. You've got to try and think about things and talk about things in such a way that they won't go out of date. You might recall the podcast on a Monday morning. People download it, get it, and have it on Thursday. I understand that my own podcast is very popular with people because it's the right length. We chose 45 minutes because it had to be the length of half a football, but it's also a very good term for people who are walking dogs. On Thursday, they're walking their dog out on some common, or on some blasted heath, and they're hearing about things that may have already happened. You've got to be really careful when planning the topics you choose, are going to have a life longer than the first day of the podcast. It's actually quite constricting. Youve got to think about it very carefully.
